


A Twitten's Secrets

by Mersheeple



Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [60]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Post-War, Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25803109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: Going running in the Forbidden Forest is a calming thing for Professor Hermione Granger. Until she enters a Twitten that calls to her...
Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [60]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805746
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	A Twitten's Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [franka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/franka/gifts).



> A "Twitten" is a narrow pathway between hedges/walls, often enclosed by trees from above, that is found in a lot of areas of the UK.
> 
> Anyway, thank you Franka for the amazing prompt! <3 (4th August 2020)

Professor Hermione Granger, Head of Gryffindor House and Arithmancy Mistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had been through a lot in her life. She had few regrets; her mother had taught her not to regret anything that she learned from. The only regret that was a constant niggle in her head was that she had not returned to the Shrieking Shack after the final battle until Professor Snape’s body had been taken or destroyed by someone else. They had had to bury an empty coffin and that thought pressed on her mind daily, especially here, in Hogwarts grounds where the memorial to those who had died stood, stark and black on the shore of the Black Lake.

It had been ten years since the War ended. Ten years in which everyone had grown up and moved on. Ten years in which she had watched her friends marry and have children and move on. Ten years in which she had loved (Ron) and lost (Ron when he cheated) and loved (Luna) and learned about herself and her body. Ten years in which she had got to know what ‘normal’ was for her. And actually, she quite liked it. She liked the feeling of normality. It suited her down to the ground. If she could only stop thinking about him and how they had left him to die alone in the Shrieking Shack.

Still, on days when the thinking became too much and the darkness seemed to be encroaching on her dreams and forcing her awake at silly times in the morning on a Saturday, she had free run of the castle. She could go to the Room of Requirement, which had been the place that she and Filius had worked on together to repair after the Fiendfyre incident, and set it up like the DA training rooms and burn off some of the excess energy. Or she could walk through the corridors and find the secret passages that the students didn’t know about. Or, like today, she could walk into the Forbidden Forest and go for a jog.

The Acromantulas were gone, taken deep into the bowels of the Ministry for Magic after the final battle. The Werewolves were all, under the Remus Lupin Act of 2000, on Wolfsbane, prescribed for free by the Healers at St Mungo’s. The few Hippogriffs that Hagrid kept were now confined to a certain area overnight and it was far too early for the Groundskeeper to have let them out to roam just yet. The Forbidden Forest was still home to the centaurs but she had an agreement with Bane and his herd. The agreement being that as long as she brought no one else into the forest with her, she could run whenever she wanted to. They understood the need to run more than any other.

She usually went the same route every time but, on this particular day, she chose to turn off her normal path and run down the twitten that she had passed multiple times. Every time she had run past, it had been because she was running late. Now though, she had plenty of time to explore. She always loved the twittens in the woods near her home when she was younger and this one almost called for her.

The curve of the trees, where they had grown into an archway that created a sheltered canopy along the pathway, the dappled light coming through, this was what a jog in the woods had always been about for Hermione. She turned into the Twitten, her feet crunching on the leaves underneath her trainers and she took in a deep breath. The crunch of the leaves and the whisper of the wind through the trees made her smile, in spite of the ache in her legs from not stretching enough.

There was something strange in the distance as she was running through the narrow alley, jumping over roots, and dodging nettles and brambles as she sped up, pushing herself towards some unknown and unknowable goal. There was a small gap in the bushes to her right and, at the last minute, she turned and pushed through, something calling to her to head that way right now.

She moved to jump over a vine on the ground and swore as she tripped. The vine wrapped around her leg, pulling her towards the Devil’s Snare plant that she hadn’t noticed. She stayed still, trying desperately not to struggle and not to be pulled into the plant and suffocated. A spell whizzed over her head and the vine let go of her leg, withering backwards and curling into itself with a strangely humanoid squeak. She raised her head from the ground to see where the spell had come from.

She looked up into the eyes of one missing, but very much alive, Master Severus Snape, raised eyebrow and half smirk on his face as if he hadn’t been lost to them for ten years.


End file.
